Backing for wall or ceiling treatment



May 20, 1941. PRICE 2,242,835

BACKING FOR WALL OR CEILING TREATMENT Original Filed Nov. Z J 6 f l f 1N VENTOR.

BY M/VAE/fi Eqzaz ATTORNEY.

Patented, May 20, 1941. I

Manley R. Price, Lakewood, Ohio Original application November 4, 193a, Serial No.

Divided and this application September 11, 1939, Serial 180.294.251

C'laims.

This application is a division of my application Serial No. 238,863, flied November 4, 1938;

The invention relates to a composite building unit, in the nature of a wall board, adapted to be assembled with other similar units in forming a base or ground for wall or ceiling facing treatment such, for example, as acoustical tile. The primary object is to provide an improved construction of the nature outlined above.

A specific object is to provide a .backing unit adapted to span conventionally spaced supports such as rafters, studding, and the like, which unit will hold 'nails and screws effectively when driven thereinto and be sufficiently tough and rigid to resist distortion and fracture incident to forces customarily applied in driving nail and screws.

A further object is to provide substantially rigid, tile-backing unit sections which can be rapidly positioned and secured and be effective to block passage of dust and other matter therethrough between adjacent sections.

In the draw1n8, Flg. 1 is a fragmentary sectional assembly view of a suspended ceiling con- 7 struction incorporating an embodiment of the invention, and Fig. 2 is a fragmentary perspective view showing the four corner portions of the backing unit according to Fig. l.

Referring to Fig. l, the upper part of this view illustrates a nailing ground which is shown and claimed in my Patent 2,160,794, issued May 30, 1939. This comprises double channel ground strips i supported as by suitable clips or tie wires in parallel relation to each other on the under sides ofvbars 2, such as structural channels customarily used in suspended ceiling construction. The above constitutes a wall framework, and so far as the present invention is concerned, the wall may be vertical or horizontal, or otherwise disposed.

The ground strips are of special shape and adapted to clinch nails such as I, when driven through members to be fastened (e. 2. units It to be described presently), and which in order so to be clinched, can encounter the strip at any point across the face of the strip which is exposed in a direction; normalto the wall, and when driven at various angles. Insteadof the special nailing ground of the suspended ceiling shown, the units it may be'nailed to rafters or studs, or over any wall covering.

In the preferred construction of ground strips I, the individual channels 4 have rods I supported between their side walls and in spaced relation to their bottoms as by being welded to outstruck portions 6 disposed at intervals along the channels. The nails 3 are like horse-shoe nails at their shank portions, 1. e. fiat and gradually tapered so that they will readily be bent in the proper direction by engagement with the sloping walls, and will curl around the rods as at 3'. Preferably, the shanks of the nails are round, so that when driven through wood, for.

instance, there is less tendency to split the wood than if the necessarily larger shank portions were also of elongated rectangular section. The ground strips have reversely bent flanges I at their sides, and these flanges cooperate with the channels to form base supports and stiffeners for thestrips. Y

The units it, as shown, comprise conventional plaster board or lath sections it and I: with paper envelopes it of suitable paper stock, and with gypsum cores. Between the boards or layere ii and 62 are web-like members it, for instance, .0113 diam, open wire fabric of a mesh from; 10 to 16 strands per inch (12 preferred)..

The layers or boards I! and I2 are offset from each other diagonally as suggested in Fig. 2, so that overhanging and underhanging tongues l5 and ii are provided respectively on two edges of the unit, permitting erection essentially in the manner or ship-lap boards. The labyrinth joint is important in order to prevent dust from coming through tothe outer iace of the unit and defacing the exposed surface of the final treatment.

The lapped joints by reason of prearrangement of the ground strips occur at the strips substantially as illustrated in Fig. 1, so that two nails, one in each channel, will each penetrate portions of both adjacent units HI. The webs l4 extend over at least two of the tongues, or substantial portions of them. As shown in Fig. 1, the web material stops, as at l'la, at the beginning of the relatively overhanging tongue, but continues entirely across the face of the relatively underhanging tongue, as at ilb, Figs. 1 and 2.

The material for the web It is selected in accordance with the type of fastener which is to coact with it. Metal fabric has been found to have good anchoring power with ordinary nails,

barbed nails, drive screws, and ordinary screws.

The units It may be secured together by adhesive which, in event of using a reticulate ma terial for the web It, passes through the voids and permits direct bonding with both layers II and I2 01' the unit. Instead, or additionally, the members forming the units can be fastened or stitched together as by Wire staple la, such as commonly used for binding paper sheets.

.The iplaster board for the layers H and. I2 is preferred, because of'its low cost, its inherent rigidity, unlikelihood of buckling and creeping, and because it serves as a fairly effective fire stop. Moreover, it is an easy matter to penetrate the outer layer with nails or screws, and the paper (usually chipboard) envelope assists in retaining such fasteners. When the fasteners are driven through the wire mesh, the locally displaced paper immediately adjacent the fasteners swells in thickness, tightly binding the strands of the mesh and tending to hold the same against being sprung away from the fasteners.

The facing treatment shown comprises the Acousti-Celotex type of tile 20.

as usual, or merely nailed or screwed onto the improved ground as indicated. The fasteners 25 in Fig. 1 are ordinary wood screws.

To assist in guiding the fasteners into place, a

tool such as shown in Fig. 1 at 21 can be used to advantage for Acousti-Celotex and can be appropriately modified to serve effectively in securing other forms of facing. This represents a guiding head for a screw driver shaft 29 which These have closely spaced holes 2| for nearly their full thickis slidable and rotatable in an axial bore in the head. Arms 30 on the head have short pins 3! and 32 for aligning the working axis of the screwdriver with the opening in which it is desired to 'drive the fastener. The shaft may be driven by hand in a variety of ways, or bypower in the event more rapid operation is desired.

I claim: I v

1. As a nail or screw holding backing for wall or ceiling treatment such as tile, a self sustaining unit comprising sheets of paper-covered plaster board with a relatively thin sheet-like element of material capable of being readily penetrated at any point by a nail or screw when driven into contact therewith through the plaster board and capable of maintaining snug holding engagement with such nail or screw, said element being intimately embraced between the adjacent paper cover sheets. I I

2. As a nail or screw holding backing for wall or ceiling treatment such as tile, 8. self sustaining unit comprising sheets of paper-covered plaster board with relatively tough .wire mesh cloth capable of holding nails or screws when driven v thereinto disposed therebetweenand sandwiched by the paper covers of adjacent sheets, and means to secure the sheets and wire mesh together inrigid relationship.

3. As a'base or support for wall treatment such i. A backing unit for ,wall or ceiling treatment 1 such as tile, said. unit comprising rectangular plaster board sheets laminated with thin and relatively tough nail-or screw-holding material between themythe sheets being diagonally offset from each other to provide overhanging and underhanging tongues, and being secured together by means which passes through the web.

5. The unit according to claims wherein the nail or screw-holding material extends across the tongues on two sides of the unit so that the web material will be present between the relatively overlapped portions of adjacent units when installed. I

MANLEY R. PRICE. 

